The Middle East

[otokonomidori]

Originally Posted by BinLadenSucks

Is that meaning that the Palestinians are not being heard through the press? If so, I hear a lot of it in the press that I see.

The BBC certainly seems to have a distinct bias in favour of the Palestinians.

[Puhbear69]

Am I writing so complicated ?

I begin from behind:
Only countries like Qatar or Saudi Arabia (for example) are having "a voice", loud enough to be heard at you government. Background: it might have something to do with the money they are investing. But they aren't interested in Palestinians.

There are a lot of reports, to actually issues of the Gaza-Palestinians, but you hear nearly only reporters talking of and not with them. That's not so easy and quite rare.
And the background of it all is well well known, Israel is closing their borders for goods to Gaza or the West Bank one's connivance. The only supply route for the ordinary people there. One can read about those issues and get an idea of the consequences for the people for a long time. It was often enough reported.

And seriously: the Palestinians were digging tunnels!
That's not done "in one day" and not done by "one person". And Israel is selling this as a new information ? Palestine is a poor country, there will be found an informant who is telling them for a few "peso" from the beginning. Easy to stop this.

The issue of the the three youngsters who were killed and the Palestinian youngster had been killed. About 300 Palestinians were arrested in follow, 12.000 houses damaged by searches of the army and some of arrested staid as "disappeared".

[otokonomidori]

I hear on the news they are calling a 72 hour truce in the morning - it's folly to let up when you've got your foot on the enemy's throat, it just gives him a chance to regroup - so I daresay Obama is leaning on the Israelis.

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by benboe

All my 55 years I have watched conflict after Israeli conflict but this one is different.
The media coverage is intense.
The effect of this is the world sees Palestinian children wounded, dying and dead.

Far more often than you see the far more frequently killed children elsewhere in the region. Television is deceptive, and offers no sense of proportion or cause and effect.

Originally Posted by benboe

So what is the effect of this?
Well, where I supported Israel in its plight to survive in a hostile region, I am now thinking if the Muslims obliterate Israel from the face of the planet I wouldn't be bothered.
Israel may be winning the ground war but have lost the battle for hearts and minds.
I do wonder on the hypocrisy of sanctions against Russia but no call for sanctions against Israel.
I makes you wonder just how much power the Jewish community holds in this world.

So what's happened is that the grossly disproportionate media coverage has warped your views. That's what the hate-Israel crowd intends, and what they're achieving.

Trivia question:
The greatest loss of life by Palestinians occurred in what conflict? Have you ever seen any pictures from this conflict?

[danton]

Originally Posted by old alal

…

Finally I saw last night that this is all our fault. The British Empire that is, (that was actually) We apparently drew the maps dividing the region up into what it is now.

This 'fact' is often repeated but rarely examined. Britain took on the Mandate in 1919, and left in 1948. The greatest and enduring influence on the Near East (and let's recall that in one respect Britain decided the geographic names; or at least, shipping companies did. The Middle East is the Persian Gulf and India, Far East, China) was the Ottoman Empire that preceded the Mandate and ruled from Asia Minor to Egypt for centuries. Individual British personalities might be the cause of this impression; from Hester Stanhope, Flinders Petrie, TE Lawrence and Freya Stark to Wilfred Thesiger, some of the most compelling narratives about this region were written by Brits. But influence, malign or otherwise? Little enough ever.

The Sykes Picot map making had not much effect on the region in reality and was in any case done more for Paris and London, who did not trust each other in the dark. No, we Brits are not to blame. But to me, nothing makes the British Empire look quite so good as what has happened subsequently. As the media shows us day after day, there are worse things in the world now than British snobbery.

[Sir Spender]

I thought it was generally accepted that the majority of broadcasting in the U.S was heavily biased & disproportionately skewed ???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_c...3Gaza_conflict

you pick your news according to your views?

There`s a 72 hour humanitarian truce now in place, thankfully.

[carpaths]

I saw in the news France aid to "Palestine" around 11 million Euro. It seems like a knife in the back for Israel.

[cicciobuki]

I get the feeling that Israel is actually pleased with having Hamas, as they give the excuse to eradicate all of the Palestinians and get all the land (and land is what it's mostly all about)

[Zidon]

Israel could have "won" this war from day 1 with no casualties to its side, by dealing with the Hamas leadership, this would have required bombing their underground command bunkers from air with those super bunker busters bombs.

Since these command posts are intentionally located in dense civilian spots, Israel can't-won't do that and instead get's dragged by Hamas into ground battles which it doesn't want.

But IMO this war is un-winnable, or rather Hamas is winning because it calls all the shots combined with the fact that it doesn't care about loss of life on its own side.

[benboe]

I understand your premise Deepsepia yet I wonder what sways your judgement to these events?
We are all prone to the persuasion of propaganda but when you see children being wounded and killed it is difficult to see it from any other point of view, hence my statement that Israel have lost the battle for hearts and minds.
I hope that from this 72 hour cease fire a peaceful end to this conflict can be found.